Norfolk - 586 places to stay

With well under nine hundred thousand inhabitants, spread over an area of 2074 square miles, Norfolk remains largely a rural county. While Noel Coward ’s “Very flat, Norfolk,” jibe is not strictly true, there are very few hills to get in the way of the view here – the highest point in the county is Beacon Hill in West Norfolk, at a giddy 103m above sea level.

As the county annually attracts around five million staying visitors, and nearly 50 million day visitors, it obviously has plenty going for it. There are wonderful medieval churches and castles, thatched cottages, and pretty villages at every turn. With a long coastline there are beaches both sandy and pebbled, tiny fishing ports, and great seafood. And away from the coast there are the Broads, a tranquil land of shallow lakes ideal for leisurely boating.

Norwich proclaims itself, quoting the words of nineteenth century writer George Borrow, “A fine city.” Few visitors would argue. The magnificent Norman Cathedral and Castle are evidence of the city’s importance in that period of English history. Today the Cathedral close is a flint-walled refuge from the bustle of a modern city, and the castle a vibrant museum. Elm Hill, with many buildings dating from the early sixteenth century, is at once quaint and full of energy. There are more than 30 medieval churches in the city, built on the wool trade, and other gems like the Guildhall and Dragon Hall. The Adam and Eve, believed to be the oldest pub in the city, has stood on the same site since the thirteenth century, and houses the city’s most famous ghost, Lord Sheffield, killed during Kett’s Rebellion in 1549.

The Broads are perhaps the best known of Norfolk’s natural treasures (although in fact they are the flooded remains of ancient peat diggings). Forty one shallow lakes linked by six generally tranquil tidal rivers, the Broads receive around two million visitors a year. They come for the boating, the beautiful and varied countryside, and the wildlife – especially birds such as bitterns and marsh harriers found at places like the Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Ranworth Broad centre and the National Nature Reserve at Hickling Broad (where the rare swallowtail butterfly may also be seen).

Within Broadland are found a multitude of windmills, with particularly fine examples at Horsey Mere, the Berney Arms, and Thurne Dyke, and as might be expected of an area of fine reed beds, there are many thatched buildings to be seen.
North Norfolk has a very different feel to it, wilder and more rugged. Blakeney , Brancaster and Salthouse have flint walled fishermen’s cottages and fine medieval churches. There are some sandy beaches, but more characteristic are pebbly foreshores and marshland. With such a coastline it is not surprising that seafood in the area is plentiful and excellent: Cromer crab ; Brancaster mussels and whelks; and Stiffkey Blues (cockles).

The seafood trade was also vital to Great Yarmouth at the eastern tip of the county, with herrings the root of the town’s wealth (shown in its coat of arms, three lion heads and bodies with herring tails). As is fitting to an urban centre, the specialities here are more elaborated: Red Herring, and Yarmouth Bloater (Cold smoked ungutted herring). The town’s wealth continued to be linked to the sea after the decline of the herring catch, first through tourism (the town has a Golden Mile to rival Blackpool’s, and two piers, Wellington and Britannia), then through servicing the North Sea oil and gas industries. Yarmouth has many historic sites: the Tollhouse dungeons; town wall remnants; the merchant’s house where Charles I’s fate was reputedly decided; a few remaining rows, (incredibly narrow streets); and an elegant riverside.

Kings Lynn in West Norfolk similarly has its history tied to the sea. The beautiful Customs House, built in the late seventeenth century, bears witness to that link, and houses exhibitions on the town’s seafaring past.
Nearby can be found Castle Rising Keep, a well preserved Norman fortress, and from much later, Sandringham , the 600 acre royal residence purchased by Queen Victoria in 1862. West Norfolk is the start of the fens, drained lands criss-crossed by drainage dykes. Denver Windmill is a working museum, and a good vantage point to view the area from.

The south of the county has a different landscape again, the Brecks, mixed forest and heath, one of the driest areas in England, containing the market towns of Thetford , Attleborough, Watton, Swaffham and Dereham, and picture postcard villages like East Harling with requisite church and cricket ground. Within Breckland can be found many historic sites, none older than Grime’s Graves, flint mines from 5000 years ago. More modern attractions abound too, like Bressingham , with its famous gardens and steam museum.

Norfolk has many habitats, and many different landscapes, but common to all are the huge skies that have attracted painters and sightseers for centuries, and continue to do so. The road network has improved in recent years, but perhaps happily there are still many nooks that are truly off the beaten track. With a sparse population there are still plenty of remote places in Norfolk free of crowds - Walcott and Eccles at the seaside, and Rockland St Peter in Breckland for example, as attractive in their way as the better known centres like Norwich and Yarmouth.